Warmth of timber in award-winning interior at Ravenswood School

The interior of the multi-award-winning Mabel Fidler Building at Ravenswood School for Girls in Gordon NSW is enhanced by a robust palette of materials and crafted detail in which Supawood Anegre natural timber veneered panels play a leading role.

Designed by BVN and already honoured with several high profile awards, the building has now also won the 2015 Australian Interior Design Award for Interior Design Impact. This has been awarded for the design creating an innovative environment to stimulate engaged learning within the school setting a new benchmark for educational building typologies.

The SUPACOUSTIC acoustic perforated panelled ceilings address the acoustics of an active environment and combined with SUPALINE walls, the natural timber finish creates an atmosphere of distinctive warmth and well-defined dimension.

The building forms a distinctive new entrance to the school and functions as a state-of-the-art central hub, creatively planned as an imaginative learning environment by combining flexible teaching spaces, libraries, a dance studio, resource centre and a café under one roof. At the same time the building has been successfully linked to the rest of the school.

Supawood worked closely with the ceilings and partitions contractor on the project, Sunshine Interiors, to meet the critical requirements for this prestigious project. These included a need for a very high quality of finish, consistency of colouring of the veneer, attention to detail and the ability to produce the many concealed access hatches required by the design.

Supawood met all these requirements with products backed by rigorous acoustic testing, detailed shop drawings and a proven reputation.

In 2013 Mabel Fidler Building was awarded the prestigious Sir John Sulman Medal for Public Architecture joining past winners which include the Sydney Opera House. A string of other awards also followed in that year and in 2013 the building won the leading World award the Chicago Antheneum International Architecture Award.